Pakistan's Punjab Floods Kill 22 as Rivers Overflow Into Lahore

At least 22 people have been killed in the flood in the last 24 hours, and around nine residential localities have been submerged due to the floodwater entering Lahore city in Pakistan's Punjab province.

"At least 1,700 villages across Punjab have been inundated while grain crops on thousands of acres of land have been submerged," the Punjab government said in a statement.

According to PTI, the army and rescue teams have evacuated over one million people so far. "Extremely high floods in eastern rivers -- the Sutlej, Ravi and Chenab -- have also resulted in the loss of 22 lives so far," the statement further added.

Roads were flooded, homes and other infrastructure were damaged, and floodwater from the Ravi River invaded Lahore's nine residential neighbourhoods.   Deputy Commissioner Syed Musa Raza of Lahore stated, "The Ravi is currently full of floodwater, with flows of nearly 220,000 cusecs, whereas the river's designed capacity is 250,000 cusecs."   The three eastern rivers were swollen, according to the authorities, by the unusual monsoon rains and the outflow of surplus water from the Indian side.

Maryam Nawaz, the Chief Minister of Punjab, visited the Ravi and apologised.  "The crisis has been aggravated by the opening of spillways by India, but noted that the province’s early warning system was functioning effectively, allowing the timely evacuation of residents," she stated.

"We will plan to deal with floods from now on. We will exclusively focus on flood prevention in the future," the chief minister said, aiming to improve infrastructure and dams.

As per PTI, the Punjab administration called in the Pakistan Army in eight districts of Punjab—Lahore, Okara, Faisalabad, Sialkot, Narowal, Kasur, Sargodha, and Hafizabad—to support civil authorities in rescue and relief efforts after India opened all the gates of its Thein Dam on the Ravi River, officials had previously stated.

India has also warned Pakistan that it plans to release water from the Madhopur Dam, which is filling up quickly.  The Ravi River, which flows from India into Pakistan, is where both dams are located.

On "humanitarian grounds," India issued flood warnings to Pakistan via diplomatic channels on Sunday.

PTI reported, the Chenab River system could see up to 800,000 cusecs of water flow over the course of the next 48 hours, posing a threat of extensive destruction.

According to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), over a million people have been evacuated and moved to safe areas as a result of the floods in the Chenab. It added that almost 80 villages were flooded in the Ravi. To date, almost 11,000 individuals have been evacuated and sent to secure areas. To date, the flooding Sutlej River has flooded 361 communities. To date, around 127,000 individuals have been evacuated and sent to secure areas.